I can be harder on myself than any fitness coach when it comes to keeping up my exercise routine. Even if I’m feeling a little sore or don’t have enough time to properly stretch or warm up, I’ll often force myself to squeeze in a workout anyway.
The Oura Ring 4, which isn’t cheap at $350 (and a $6 monthly subscription) but will hopefully be on sale for Black Friday, helps me overcome the guilt that goes with skipping a workout. This wellness-tracking ring can measure everything from activity to heart rate and stress levels, but in my view it’s the way these readings are presented in Oura’s app that makes this ring stand out from other wearables.
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Oura not only provides a score assessing how well rested I am but also offers me advice to put these ratings into context — making it feel like the app is giving me guidance rather than just spewing out data. And some of that guidance includes telling me when it’s time to take it easy.
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Oura’s Readiness score explained
To be clear, Oura’s Readiness Score isn’t new; it’s been a staple of the Oura app since the first generation ring debuted on Kickstarter in 2015. Oura also isn’t the only wearable-tech maker trying to provide more context about what the deluge of data coming from our devices means. Apple, for instance, introduced an Apple Watch feature called Training Load to help users see how workouts may affect their body over time. Samsung’s Energy Score metric is similar to Oura’s Readiness Score in that it analyzes various metrics to assess your physical and mental readiness for the day.
But I still think Oura’s metric is the best at giving me meaningful information about my body, rather than just highlighting trends.
Oura’s Readiness Score takes into account factors such as sleep, activity, resting heart rate, heart rate variability and body temperature to get a sense of whether you need rest or are ready to hit the gym. On days when I’m feeling a little exhausted and burnt out, seeing a low Readiness Score gives me the extra bit of reassurance I need to take a break rather than pushing myself into a run.
On a recent Saturday when my Readiness Score was pretty low (53 out of 100), for example, the app told me that my resting heart rate was elevated and I should give myself
Why the Oura Ring 4’s Readiness Metric Is So Useful to Me
